In Brief
STRIKE OFF
OA contract workers suspend weekend industrial action over permanent deals Olympic Airlines flights are expected to operate as normal this weekend after contract workers suspended plans to strike following talks with management. Flight engineers and air stewards on short-term contracts said they would await a reply from the Transport Ministry as to whether they are to be given permanent jobs. This would mean that they could claim a transfer to another job in the civil service when the airline shuts down. ABDUCTION DENIAL Pakistani minister has no evidence migrants were secretly interrogated Pakistan’s Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao denied yesterday claims that Pakistani nationals in Greece were abducted and questioned by Greek and British agents in connection with July’s terrorist attacks in London. The minister said that the Pakistan Embassy has received no such complaints regarding the claims. Greece and Britain have formally dismissed the claims. ENERGY PROTEST Calls for more renewable sources Greenpeace activists in Santa Claus outfits protest with mock wind power generators outside the Development Ministry in Athens yesterday. The environmental group accused the government of delays in drafting new legislation to promote renewable energy sources to avoid polluting the atmosphere with an estimated 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide a month. Survivor returns Grigoris Papadopoulos, one of the passengers aboard a government plane which lost altitude killing seven people in 1999, returned to his duties at the Foreign Ministry yesterday after suffering serious injuries in the freak accident. Alternate Foreign Minister Yiannos Kranidiotis and his 23-year-old son were among those killed when the Falcon 900 went into a sudden dive. The pilot managed to land the plane safely. Athens adamant The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Turkey have to make efforts to improve relations with Greece since Athens has already made its positions clear, Deputy Foreign Minister Evripidis Stylianidis said yesterday. «Greece has displayed its good will and indicated the deep red line which it refuses to cross,» Stylianidis said in reference to negotiations over FYROM’s name. He also called on Ankara to respect human rights and pursue good-neighborly relations. Yiossakis trial Antiquities allegedly removed from a monastery on the island of Kythera by former priest Iakovos Yiossakis and two associates had a total value of some 26,000 euros, experts told a Piraeus court. The valuation means that the three defendants will face misdemeanor charges and need not have been held in custody before the trial. This led to an outburst from one of the accused, monk Kyrillos Stavropoulos, who said that he only believes in God and not the justice system. Sour milk Piraeus Prefecture officials said yesterday that they had seized some 1,300 liters of milk from three supermarkets in the area. They confiscated the goods after a complaint from the Greek Consumer Union. The supermarkets were all part of the Dia chain, officials said. Bridge hideout A 22-year-old man was arrested yesterday after police caught him stashing 385 grams of heroin under a road bridge in Thessaloniki. Police said they were tipped off by passing motorists whose suspicions were roused when they saw the man, an Albanian national, climbing down the bridge.
